Road race to draw top runners

Look for fas crowds near the Tradewinds on Jan. 13.

By JON WILSON
Published December 27, 2006

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Former Maine runner of the year Judson Cake and nationally ranked female runner Sonja Friend-Uhl are among the elite athletes expected to compete in the Jan. 13 St. Pete Beach Classic road race.

The race has been selected as the 2007 Road Runners Club of America Southern region 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) championship.

Cake, a 2001 University of Maine graduate, was named the 2005 Maine Runner of the Year by New England Runner magazine. His best time in the 10K is 30 minutes, 17 seconds. He ran a 2:24:45 at this year's Chicago Marathon.

Friend-Uhl won the 2005 St. Pete Beach Classic and has a 10K best of 33:57. She has been a member of six U.S. national teams, was a 2000 Olympic Trials competitor at 1,500 meters and is ranked among the nation's top women for distances from the 5K to the half-marathon, according to her biography.

Top Tampa Bay region runners committed to race include Lee Stephens of Tampa (this year's Bay to Bay winner), Steve Mandel of Clearwater (this year's St. Pete Beach Classic winner), Tony Teats of Riverview and Daniel French of Dade City.

The Tradewinds Sandpiper is the host of the race, and the start and finish lines are at the resort, 6000 Gulf Blvd.